


Any Way the Wind Blows

by mysterioussinkhole



Category: Succession (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant (Up to Season 2 Finale), Gen, Greg Character Study, I guess???, Missing Scene, The tomgreg stuff is mostly background, What happened on the helicopter ride back to the US
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27584279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterioussinkhole/pseuds/mysterioussinkhole
Summary: Greg considers his options.
Relationships: Greg Hirsch & Kendall Roy, Greg Hirsch/Tom Wambsgans
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Any Way the Wind Blows

Greg was coming to the conclusion that he didn’t like helicopters. At least, not as much as planes. There was less room to move around so you bounced up against everyone, even if it was just one other person, and planes had the whole multiple engine situation whereas this thing had the equivalent of one of those seed pod thingies, the whirligigs, that just spun really fast. Though for all he knew the helicopter could have actually been a secret Transformer that Logan had made on the side. At this point, it really wouldn’t surprise him that much.

But it was mostly about the space issue. Like how do you deal with somebody who was essentially a dead man, sent to the slaughter by his dad no less, when the one dying could just as easily have been you? Should have been you. Fuck.

Kendall barely talked to him for the first couple of hours and that was fine. Greg wouldn’t want to talk to anybody- he couldn’t even finish that thought because of how blatant a lie it was. Of course, he would want to talk to someone, he never fucking shut up. It was a problem of his. Somewhere along the way he convinced himself that he could talk his way out of anything bad that happened to him because he was smart, he knew that he was smart, but the longer he spent with the Roys the more he felt like an idiot. It was like every vaguely Canadian accented word out of his mouth dug him further into his “uncultured rube” hole. Everyone seemed to run circles around him here, his family, reporters, the fucking Senate… So yeah, the talking thing actually rarely worked in his favor. If anything, it mostly made his life worse.

During the middle stretch of hours, he managed to calm himself down after the adrenaline of being convinced he was going to prison, and actually started to pay attention to the only other person around. Kendall looked just like he had on the boat. Sunglasses hiding any sign of emotion in his eyes, even though they were inside with the window shades down, and music pounding in his headphones. They were fancy so it wasn’t like Greg could really hear what he was listening to, but he had it cranked up loud enough where the odd bass beat or drum hit could leak through if it hit particularly hard. The soft, seemingly random pulses were enough to nearly drive him insane, but Kendall looked placid. Like a lake. He didn’t have it in him to disturb whatever weird sense of calm his cousin had found on the way to the chopping block.

That calm though… Ok so maybe Greg wasn’t that smart, but he was definitely observant. People ignored him most of the time, even if he was often the most obvious person in a given area. Even if you were 6’7”, the rich only pay attention to you if you have something to offer them, so in that respect he was utterly fucking invisible. That actually worked in his favor more often than not. Tom trusted him because he kept a close eye on things around the office and always knew where the wind was blowing. So when it came to Kendall, it wasn’t that hard to notice that he’d been drastically different for months. Since Tom and Shiv’s wedding to be exact. Greg wasn’t sure what exactly he knew, but he remembered Kendall that night, addled and practically begging for someone to hook him up. He pointed him towards Andy.

Andy had been cute. Part of him had thought that maybe they’d hook up at some point before the wedding festivities were over. He hadn’t talked much, probably because Greg barely let him get a word in edgewise with all of his agonizing over Tom and Shiv and what to do, but when he did he seemed sweet. And then he was dead. Andy was dead, and all of a sudden Logan had Kendall on a leash.

Greg wondered if Andy counted as a real person. Probably not.

He didn’t know enough to say for certain what happened, but he was pretty sure he knew enough to make it seem like he did. Best to save that for later. It wouldn’t get him anything now. What was the point in having leverage on someone who was already going down? It had surprised him, even with what he had noticed, that Kendall took it so easily. This was his cousin, the guy who started a proxy war to unseat his own father from the throne of a multibillion dollar company, the one who had locked Roman in a dog cage one of the Christmases that he and his family came to visit and had left him there long enough for Roman to have to lure a tiny Greg into helping him escape with a promise of M&Ms as payment. He didn’t tend to just accept what was thrown at him, at least not until recently. And truth be told, Greg didn’t completely mind this coked out pushover version of his cousin. He gave him an apartment, for Christ’s sake! Sure, he wasn’t the best landlord and Greg was pretty sure he had him to thank for his burgeoning coke habit, but at heart he wasn’t a bad dude. Kendall had to grow up with Logan Roy for a dad. That would fuck anybody up.

He had told Kendall earlier that he thought it was unfair for him to take the blame. It was really, even if it did benefit him. Greg had been sure that it would be him and Tom. It was always him and Tom. Tom with his impotent rages and obsessive desire for some form of control in his life as the Roys repeatedly stepped all over him… It had taken far too long for Greg to figure out that he was the whipping boy’s whipping boy. Getting out from under Tom would be his best move going forward if he wanted any chance of surviving the business world. The media always paired them together after their testimonies. They were a pair. Best to break that up now, while he still could. Greg could feel himself growing genuinely attached to Tom, more so than his first few awestruck weeks working for him. When he had tried to quit months ago, Tom had exploded as though he actually cared where Greg went, and even apologized afterwards. It was fucked up for sure, and definitely more related to Tom’s own personal issues than any sense of closeness. But he’d also almost perjured himself in front of the Senate, claiming he didn’t even know Greg. Again, probably to protect his own neck more than Greg’s but a guy could dream.

Wait. No. He most certainly _could not_ dream that his cousin’s husband felt anything for him other than a sense of ownership. He would not think about the weird touchiness or the fact that their first conversation involved Tom asking him to kiss him. Definitely not. Nothing helpful there.

Dragging himself out of the nigh unavoidable Tom Hole that had been dug in the middle of his brain, Greg tripped over a thought. He still had those documents, the few that he had been able to stuff into his pants while Tom was off looking for matches. He’d unfolded them at home and looked them over to see what he had managed to snag. There wasn’t a lot that he could make sense of out of context. Most of it was dense legalese or a random email out of a long chain, but what he did see turned his stomach. That acronym, NRPI, kept popping up. Whenever someone referenced it casually in the ongoing war meeting that was the Roy family, a little voice in the back of his head whispered, “I wonder if I’m a real person”.

However, even more important was the bottom line of one form that had been slightly slick with lighter fluid when he’d first looked it over. He had Logan’s signature.

If he could- If there was some way that Kendall could- It would mean certain death for both of them if they didn’t execute it perfectly, but they could make things better. Make sure the right people were held responsible. Save their own necks… He wasn’t good at these things. A little light blackmailing was a long way from all out whistleblowing. Kendall would know what to do. He was probably sitting there, listening to his music, and searching for a lifeline right this very second. Greg could be a hero if he tried.

Before he could talk himself down from the impulse, Greg stood from his end of the helicopter, strode down the aisle in quick steps, and plopped himself down in the seat across from Kendall. Kendall didn’t have any visible reaction. He could be sleeping. Or just have his eyes closed. So Greg did his thing where he stares at a person until they finally ask him what’s on his mind. Nothing. He cleared his throat noisily.

Kendall jolted out of whatever stupor he was in and pulled his headphones off.

“You good, man?”

“Uh…” Greg floundered for a few seconds. Play it cool. You have to play it cool. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Everything’s chill. Uh, well not really but that’s what you say so… Ok, so um, I have something.”

“You have something,” Kendall was doing that thing that rich people did around him where they repeated his words back to him like he was an idiot and they were doing their best to follow his idiot logic.

“Yeah, I have something. I- so you know how Tom had me destroy those documents?”

“N- Yeah.”

“You see… It wasn’t just the one batch? Um. I kept some? Just in case. And later on, I told Tom and he made me get rid of them, but I still managed to save a few before we burned them. So… What I’m saying is I think- I think I might be able to help you. If you wanted.”

Kendall hunched forward at that, actually listening to him now. Greg tried to go through it in more detail as best he could, pausing to explain when Kendall asked a question.

“Wait, so do you have them with you now?”

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot. I- I keep them with me so nobody finds them if they go looking through my stuff at home. Which is probably happening. Shit.”

If the Feds searched his place they’d find all his embarrassing stuff and probably laugh at him for being such a fucking dweeb. Like, _Oh look at this guy, he’s a stoner and into dudes_.

“Greg. Focus. Let me see them.”

Standing up, suddenly self-conscious, Greg went over to his suitcase and fumbled around until he found the large manila envelop stashed in one of the zipper pockets. He had made sure to label it Top Secret this time.

Kendall practically ripped it open as he handed it over, sunglasses already ripped off as he stared almost hungrily at the stolen documents. Greg had assumed that he had given up, but the light of desperation, the constant fight to stay alive, burned in his cousin’s eyes like it hadn’t in months. After a few minutes of careful consideration, Kendall set the papers down on his tray table and lunged over to hug Greg.

It was awkward. Of course it was awkward. Nobody was ever particularly receptive when Greg tried to hug them, and Kendall had trouble even hugging his own kids. But this felt like a person clinging to a rock after nearly drowning in the ocean.

“You have no idea,” Kendall muttered. “how much this helps us.”

He released Greg after a few seconds and sighed heavily.

“Ok. Game plan time.”

“Wait, wait am I part of the game planning now? Cuz most of the time my plans aren’t super good if I think about them too much.”

“No, no, you’re helping me with this. I was going to try to throw Dad under the bus anyway but this… this means we actually have a fighting chance. And you’re in this with me Greg. If I use these, everyone is going to know it was you who gave them to me. I go down, you go down with me.”

Greg had a sudden and violent sense of déjà vu but shook it off in favor of vacantly nodding.

“Yeah. Ok. So like, maybe we just say that we’re doing the right thing? Like don’t make it about you and your dad, make it about the people that have been fucked over?”

Kendall tilted his head to the side a little bit.

“Yeah. That could work. My dad should be the focus of the ire though. He let all of this happen. He’s the one that needs to go down, he has ultimate responsibility.”

They talked strategy, Greg throwing out the occasional suggestion for Kendall to reject or revise to suit his purposes. He’d been a sounding board before; it wasn’t that hard. What was difficult was the question that came after.

“What do you want to get out of this?” Kendall said as he leaned back in his seat. They had worked out a general plan for the press conference and Kendall had started jotting down bits of a statement on notecards, so this felt like a transition into the Long Game talks.

To be honest, Greg didn’t know. He had barely even chosen to come work at Waystar in the first place. It always felt like life just pushed him along a path that he had little to no say in and his only choice was to deal with it. The question daunted him.

“I…”

He could say anything, literally anything. Immunity, a payout, a house in the middle of nowhere that he could live in Roy-free for the rest of his days. But he couldn’t get Logan’s voice out of his head from the night of the party in Dundee. He didn’t want to end up like his grandpa, bitter and cut off from everything that actually mattered. What he wanted… He thought about Tom. About Logan. About every single day of his twenty-nine years on Earth.

“I don’t want to be powerless anymore. I want… I want to be in the room where it happens, y’know?”

Kendall stared for a second and then burst out in delighted laughter.

“Greg the Motherfucking Egg! Who would have thought?” He sobered a bit after a moment, then smiled. The first real smile he’d seen on Kendall’s face since… well, ever. “I think that can be arranged. You with me?”

He reached out a hand. There was something bouncing around in the back of his head like a DVD loading screen, high school lit class stuff about allegories and allusions, but he pushed it away and firmly shook hands with his cousin. It felt like a new beginning and an ending all at once.

**Author's Note:**

> Of all the the shows to get me out of my fanfic rut, I never thought it would be this one. The characters are so much fun to write and analyze! Hope you guys enjoy it! Comments are always appreciated.


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